1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to an apparatus and a method for using the apparatus for the measurement and/or transfer of a fixed volume of liquid sample.
2. Description of the Related Art
General methods to determine o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) or glutaraldehyde concentrations are mainly instrumental measurements that could be classified into chromatographic measurement (chromatographic, HPLC analysis) or non-chromatographic measurement (direct spectroscopic assay). For HPLC analysis, OPA or glutaraldehyde are measured by both a derivative method or a non-derivative method. The most common derivative method is to convert OPA or glutaraldehyde to 2,4-dinotrophenylhydrazones by reacting OPA with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine. Since the UV absorption is greatly enhanced, this method is valuable for low level OPA or glutaraldehyde measurements especially in environmental analysis. For measurements of high concentrations of OPA or glutaraldehyde, such as the OPA or glutaraldehyde disinfectants, OPA or glutaraldehyde could be measured directly without making derivatives first. OPA or glutaraldehyde may be analyzed easily with GC analysis. For non-chromatographic analysis, OPA or glutaraldehyde could be measured directly with spectrophotometric methods. However, one drawback to this method is that there must be no interference at the specific wavelength used. For example, OPA or glutaraldehyde could be oxidized slowly by air and the carboxylic acid formed may interfere in such assays.
All three instrumental methods involve the preparation of samples and use of an instrument. They are all time-consuming and too expensive or too complicated for hospital end users. Therefore, Albert Browne and 3M have developed a simple strip procedure for a Pass/Fail test. In such a test, the strip was dipped into either OPA or glutaraldehyde solutions for a certain amount of time. After a predetermined time, the strip color was compared with some standard colors. Their strip chemistry principles were not released. The problems with this method are consistency and accuracy. The strip method has the following problems (1). Good solutions (OPA or glutaraldehyde higher than “POI”, the point of interest) often fail the test for different reasons. (2). The soaking time and waiting time have to be controlled carefully. Any deviation will lead to different shades of color and a false reading. (3). Moving of the strip when soaking will lead to the loss of chemical reagents to the OPA or glutaraldehyde solutions leading to false reading. (4). Individual users have different color recognition habits and often have a different opinion of the end-color. (5). The final color is dependent on many factors and is particularly sensitive to time.
The current invention provides another method without the above problems. Although the chemistry principle could also be used for the strip approach, in a preferred embodiment it is used for the color change of a solution.